It’s back. And apparently, I’m supposed to care/buy one!
The infamous McRib from McDonald’s has returned yet again to satisfy the cult following it has garnered since its 1981 inception by the international chain restaurant behemoth, and people are absolutely losing their minds about it. As a self-styled McRib virgin, I have no idea what the whole craze is about; doubtless, I’ll go another year without tasting one. But still, it’s enough to halt many major social networking sites and news outlets ranging from Twitter to the Wall Street Journal, so the show must go on.
The food giant announced that, from October 24th through November 14th, many of the easily-recognizable golden arches will be offering the sandwich with the fanatical following. While numbers have yet to be calculated, the massive buyout from last year’s promotional release was apparently successful enough to spur another limited time release.
The McRib is arguably one of McDonald’s most successful products; successful enough to have its own Wikipedia page. It consists of a special bun roll with ground pork patties, barbecue sauce, onions, and pickles. Technically, its moniker is a deceiving one: with no bones (thank goodness) inside the pork, it technically isn’t a “rib” of the literal sense. Of course, as Marta Fearon, McDonald’s U.S. marketing director tells, that only “gives it this quirky sense of humor”.
Its initial sales from the 80s, despite its notoriety, were mediocre: the sandwich only tested positive in the Midwest, and even then only lasted 4 years on the permanent menu due to lagging sales. However, the McRib as a promotional item has seen much greater success. In last year’s promotional sale of the McRib for a few weeks, profits of the humble sandwich due to seemingly obsessive-compulsive sales boosted sales and stock by 4.8%. An even larger boost is expected in this year’s sales.
Marta Fearon plans well, and knows how to channel the McRib hysteria with picture-perfect precision :”Bringing it back every so often adds to the excitement,” she adds in an interview with Yahoo. And excitement there is!
If I (hypothetically) wanted to try out the new McRib, normally I would have a hard time locating a store sponsoring the event. Not anymore! To cater to the frantic hordes of McRib aficionados, Minnesota meteorologist Alan Klein developed the McRib Locator website, a frequently-updated page dedicated solely to tracking McDonald’s restaurants who serve the McRib after the promotion is done for the year. Klein reports that his site gets on average 300-400 hits a week. His site has plenty of dedicated McRib fans.
One of these McRib fans is Jeremy Duensing. He was on a family trip to Nebraska last year. The first site he checked before leaving? The McRib Locator website. To his obsessive delight, he found a restaurant near Omaha that sold the sandwich on its menu; consequently, he bought six of the pork sandwiches, storing them in an ice-packed freezer.
To one who has never tasted the McRib, I find this teetering on the edge of psychological imbalance. But Jeremy isn’t the only one.
The list goes on and on. One man drives 10 hours from Oregon to California just to taste one. Another flew straight to Germany, where the product is sold year-round, so he can fulfill his McRib craving. McDonald’s even ran a campaign asking for people’s stories concerning their McRib enthusiasm. Believe me when I say the list doesn’t end at those two examples.
I personally don’t expect to eat a McRib this time around. But millions more will. And if they’re anything like Jeremy Duensing, it’ll be a win-win for the consumer and for McDonald’s. I guess there’s some things not even a serious recession can change.
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Sources:
The McRib makes a McComeback! (original article)
Bona-Fide Fans Rib-Free Rib Sandwich
McDonald's Seeking your Epic McRib Stories!
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Sources:
The McRib makes a McComeback! (original article)
This is hilarious! There was little voice, but it was there and it worked. There seemed like there was bias - since you obviously aren't interested - but you never said why or really went off on that, instead you brought up others and their experiences. I like how you told us about the meteorologist - so random and interesting! And someone actually flew out of the country for one. I heard all the hype last year and decided to try it... IT WAS DISGUSTING. I thought I was going to be sick. So I have no idea what these people are experiencing. I was intrigued by your article -especially because of all the advertisements and excitement I was interested to read what you had to say, and I'm glad I kept reading! I like that you included facts, history, examples from real people. Marta Fearon, McDonald’s U.S. marketing director seems like a joke for thinking the sandwich not actually consisting of ribs “gives it this quirky sense of humor” HAHAH wow. Good job.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, that was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it was so obviously biased I had a hard time taking the McRib all that seriously. Although, admittedly, I find it hard to take the McRib seriously ever.
However, because this was supposed to be a hard news article (and I used the term hard lightly) the blatant bias is a bit distracting. On the other hand as a narrative piece it works well. In combination (hard news and narrative) I'm not sure if it works. While entertaining it was a bit distracting from the actual information. I didn't care so much about the McRib as to what your next joke was going to be. You might want to consider leaving out the narrative in the rewrite. Or, if you like the jokey biased thing (which I did in one sense but not in all) then I'd suggest keeping it.
My only other suggestion would be to explain who the meteorologist is more. Is he also a spastic McyDee's McRib fan? Or just a helpful passerbyer who decided to have a McRib related hobby? Explaining that even educated, professionals are obsessed would also help elaborate on the hysteria.
Overall, great job. It was fantastically written and funny.